With last night’s victory, the Phillies have now won 7 of 8 games against the Mets, including four straight on the road. The 4-0 win displayed a lot of positives for the Phils, if only for a night. Kyle Kendrick dazzled in throwing a complete game shutout, while Ryan Howard showed a little power, something fans have been waiting for him to do.

Howard may have an opportunity to continue his power display today, as he has gone 4-for-8 lifetime against Mets starter, Shaun Marcum. Three of those four hits have been home runs. Marcum is making his 2013 debut after spending time on the DL with a sore neck. Injuries have long been an issue for Marcum, who only started 21 games for the Brewers last year while plagued with an elbow injury. In five career starts against the Phillies, Marcum is 2-1 with a 3.51 ERA.

Rookie Jonathan Pettibone will toe the rubber for the Phils. In his Major League debut, starting in place of the injured John Lannan, Pettibone impressed, throwing 5.1 innings, while allowing two runs and striking out six. The six strikeouts were the most for a Phillies starter in his MLB debut since Cole Hamels did it back in 2006.

For my money, there is no better beer for a Spring day than a pale ale, and Sierra Nevada’s version of the classic brew delivers. It’s nothing more than a basic pale ale, but it has a rich, consistent hoppy flavor, while maintaining a refreshing quality often lost in stronger versions of the brew. It goes down easily, and is the perfect beer for someone just beginning to experiment with pale ales, or a seasoned drinker looking for a smooth beer on a beautiful afternoon. Complete your lunch with an open-faced Turkey Ruben sandwich. –By RD

For the 2nd straight game nw, with the Phils holding an insurmountable 1 run lead, Howard took advantage of pad my stats time, and drove in a run (3 last night on a homer, when he could have walked, and now, he sets up a 3 run blast by Dom Brown.

In reply to your question, I have a story for you. Maybe your familiar with this event. Earlier in the game today, Howie Rose decided to review history and went back to Jimmy’s team to beat proclamation. He chose not to quit while he was ahead, and chose to embark down to the depths of stupidity. He moved onto Cole Hamels, who, if you heard the interview on NY’s fan, you knew loudly and clearly that Hamels was dragged into calling the Mets “chokers. Rose proceeded to tell the story out of context, and simply said Hamels called the Mets chokers. Pretty stupid out of context comment showing a complete lack of understanding and/ or integrity. Good luck figuring out the connection.

I assume that you are calling me stupid and suggesting that I am taking your comments out of context when I disputed your “pad my stats” comment. Perhaps you were not digging at Ryan Howard. So many posters here have nothing better to do than complain about his salary, that tends to be how I read everything. Honestly, I was surprised that nobody bitched about him striking out when we had a 6-run lead.

I described Howie Rose’s trip down memory lane to include stupidity. He’s a real danger. It’s not impossible I eat these words on his later venture during the game, but he was at least equally stupid, and probably more so when he decided to lure his broadcast partner Josh Lewin into discussion about if the Angels let Mike Scosia go, if the Phils might pick him up. Citing Scosia’s having lived in Upper Darby (I believe that to have been many, many years ago), and would doubt it’d be a major factor IF the 2 clubs made changes. The problem with Rose is sound wise, he polarizes his NY counterpart (Sterling), who’s an out and out buffoon.
This deceives his audience into thinking he knows what he’s talking about. His play by play is good. His tendency to supplement that with nonsense diminishes that quite a bit.

Andrew continues to roll on with unique theories about baseball. Within his genius, he decided Howard was the only guy in the world that pads stats in non critical situations, and he prefers walks to homers. Andrew portrays as good people, and I was having some fun with him. As thanks for the shout out, he will be obliging my request to take Jimmy Basepaths off the must go now list, and putting him on probation tomorrow/ Monday might be another story.
I guess I should say pretty please rather than sounding so demanding.

Down by as many as 26 points to the league average in OBP about 2 weeks ago, even discounting today’s over .300 rate, the Phils have cut the gap to 11 points. This within a period of a lot of frustration, but the League has dropped about 6 points during that time.
Revere’s absence is probably not a coincidence.

I have intentionaly over accentuated his deficiencies the past few or 4 years because some ( especially on this site) think he is a top 5 hitter or maybe even the best.
Although I will say mot now are more in line with me. Which makes it much less fun.

I have never disliked him as I do Rollins. I just analyze his play.

I also get a very big kick out of defending his side of the contract.
The contract is 0% his fault.

@ Ken, FYi, I went to HS (St James Catholic) in Chester and shared a locker for 4 years with his older brother Fred who lived in Morton. The family may have moved to Upper Darby at a later date but in 1962 they lived in Morton.

I’m in favor of accurate reporting, and appreciate the thought, but it’s a side issue. The issue is where I might be wrong, but Mike’s been in California for years, the Phils have had many times where they could have brought him into their org, and I’ve never heard of any yearning to return “home” If, by chance there is, that’s cool, but speculating about people losing jobs and going off on a tangent in a play by play role, laugher or not struck me as ridiculous